Checks and Balance: Roe your own way
Checks and Balance from The Economist
The Economist
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 16 September 2022
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The most significant moment in the midterms campaigns may have come in June. That was when the Supreme Court decided to overturn Roe v Wade, taking away the federal right to an abortion and sending the decision back to the states. This fired up Democratic candidates and voters. The party has been doing well in special elections and referendums, and making gains in the polls. How much is this to do with the fight for abortion rights?
The Economist’s Stevie Hertz travels to Michigan to hear how abortion is influencing voters in that state. We go back to a milestone election for female voters. And US representative Abigail Spanberger explains how the issue is shaping her race for reelection.
John Prideaux hosts with Charlotte Howard and Idrees Kahloon.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The first anti-abortionists were doctors. |
| 0:07.4 | Until the mid-19th century, abortion was dangerous, loosely regulated and easily accessible |
| 0:12.4 | in America. |
| 0:13.9 | Aborting a pregnancy wasn't illegal until a woman had felt a baby move or kick inside |
| 0:18.6 | her. |
| 0:19.9 | With primitive medical technology, this moment, turned quickening, was the only way to |
| 0:24.3 | be sure of a pregnancy. |
| 0:26.7 | Sometimes it usually relied on the woman herself to testify that this had happened. |
| 0:30.8 | Even post-quickening abortions were rarely prosecuted. |
| 0:34.8 | But then doctors began to organize. |
| 0:37.6 | In 1847, the American Medical Association was formed by a group of male physicians keen |
| 0:43.2 | to mark their territory. |
| 0:45.1 | They wanted to make the procedure more scientific and safer and to take the responsibility for |
| 0:49.8 | performing abortions away from the nurses and midwives who most often did it. |
| 0:55.0 | They pushed states to outlaw abortion and by 1910, it was illegal everywhere except for |
| 1:00.3 | when a woman's life was at risk. |
| 1:03.2 | And then, in 1973, the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade made abortion until viability |
| 1:10.1 | a constitutional right. |
| 1:13.7 | With 52 days until the midterm elections, I'm John Prado and this is Chex and Balance |
| 1:18.8 | from the Economist. |
| 1:23.0 | Each week, we take one big theme, shaping American politics and explore it in depth. |
| 1:37.0 | Today, will abortion decide the midterm elections? |
... |
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